Is It Better to Do Cardio First or Crunches? (Video)

It's always better to do a warmup before beginning any exercise including crunches. Find out why it is better to do cardio first before crunches with help from an experienced fitness professional in this free video clip.

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Hi, my name is Amanda Kelly, and this is is it better to do cardio first or crunches. It's always better to do a warmup before beginning any exercise including crunches. So it's great to do a little bit of cardio beforehand. Cardio exercise simply means rise in your heart rate. This is a cardio exercise to help raise the heart rate and get your core ready for your crunches. Rotations through the belly and then we can also switch it and bring it down to the ground and reach through, warming up through the back and the stomach and then you can even take it to a jog, keeping your core tight and your chest lifted. Now that you are all warmed up we're going to do some crunches which is great for strengthening that core and also the back. When doing crunches you want to make sure you lay all the way back and your lower back is tight to the floor. So we're going to slowly roll down one vertebra at a time, hands come behind the head, nice light fingers behind the ears. Keep your elbows out, don't draw them in and you're going to lift up bringing the shoulder blades off the ground and then slowly roll back down. A crunch is not a situp so we don't come all the way up, just tighten the top and then lower back down.